As users of telephony services become increasingly mobile, certain elements of their environment have unfortunately not adapted to the specific needs brought on by this increased mobility. For example, mobile users are still constrained to touch or otherwise physically handle a telephone when originating a call. Although in some instances voice recognition can be used to recognize dialing commands, it remains the case that an initial tactile interaction (usually pressing a button) is required to activate the phone and place it into a mode in which dialing commands can subsequently be detected and responded to.
For users who wear wireless headsets, this limitation poses an inconvenience, as the very purpose of wearing a headset is to keep one's hands free, which is not possible when the headset or phone base must be physically manipulated in order to originate a call. Similarly, drivers wishing to originate a call must liberate at least one hand from the steering wheel or stick shift while activating their phones, even if voice recognition is used to recognize a subsequent dialing command. This brief moment of distraction poses a safety hazard.
Thus, an improvement is needed which would enable a user of a communication device who wishes to originate a call to do so without touching the communication device.